Recently, there was a missive on pen-l about Robert Shiller's use of
behavioral economics to shift the blame on what's happening to the
world and US economies to mere psychology ("animal spirits"). Now, the
NYT's opinionator David Brooks plays the same game:
> You can see The Big Shaggy ["passions and drives that don’t lend themselves
> to systemic modeling"] at work when a governor of South Carolina suddenly
> chucks it all for a love voyage south of the equator, or when a smart,
> philosophical congressman from Indiana risks everything for an in-office
> affair.
> You can see The Big Shaggy at work when self-destructive overconfidence
> overtakes oil engineers in the gulf, when go-go enthusiasm intoxicates
> investment bankers or when bone-chilling distrust grips politics.<
So the oil engineers weren't pressured by the _normal_ corporate lust
for profits that is embodied in corporations like BP (especially when
BP's lobbying meant that they were allowed to take big risks with our
and Nature's health)? so the investment bankers weren't motivated by
old-fashioned profit-maximization (combined with implied promises of
government/Federal Reserve bail-outs)? so the distrust of politics has
no justification, even given the way politicians have totally sold out
to business? It's all emotion, animal spirits? this is quite shaggy.
--
Jim Devine
"Those who take the most from the table
Teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary folk." – Bertolt Brecht.
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